RAR #179: Do You See What I See? How to Look Closely at a Picture Book

Sarah (00:08): You're listening to the Read-Aloud Revival Podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Mackenzie, homeschooling mama of six and author of The Read-Aloud Family and Teaching From Rest. As parents, we're overwhelmed with a lot to do. It feels like every child needs something different. The good news is you are the best person to help your kids learn and grow and home is the best place to fall in love with books. This podcast has been downloaded seven million times in over 160 countries, so if you want to nurture warm relationships while also raising kids who love to read, you're in good company. We'll help your kids fall in love with books and we'll help you fall in love with homeschooling. Let's get started. (00:59): Last time on the podcast, we invited you to take a challenge; your own kind of choose your own challenge, seven days or 30 days or whatever works for you, and read a picture book a day to your kids during that time. If you missed it, you can go back and listen. It's episode 178 and in it we talk about the benefits of reading a whole story a day with our kids of any age. We're talking about picture books, yes, but we're not just talking about younger kids. And we talk a little bit more in that episode about why picture books work so well with older kids as well. Reading a whole story does something that just reading a chapter from a longer work doesn't do. it gives our kids ... any age kids ... practicing the full story arc because every story, no matter if it takes 10 minutes or 10 hours to read, has one overarching story arc. (01:51): And this is the real powerhouse idea here, I think. It actually gives our kids so much more exposure to different stories, different genres, different people and experiences and cultures and lets them walk miles and miles in the shoes of others when we read a quantity of stories. A story a day gives them this wide exposure that reading, let's say, a novel over a period of time doesn't quite give. When you're reading a full story from beginning to end per day, you're giving them something they simply won't get if you read, say, a long novel, even if it's a classic, or a chapter book over the course of a longer period of time. And we love novels around here. Of course, we all read them with our kids. But right now we want to encourage you to take advantage of the particular gifts and benefits that reading picture books has with kids of all ages. (02:38): Now before we start with our juicy conversation today about what we can really find when we look closely at a picture book, I want to introduce you to the RAR team members who are here. Kortney is back. She's the community director here at Read-Aloud Revival. If you've ever sent in an email or if you're a Read-Aloud Revival premium member, you have very likely interacted with Kortney in some way. Kortney, welcome back. Kortney (03:02): Hi, Sarah. Sarah (03:03): And Kara is also back. She's our podcast manager, and so she makes sure everything runs smoothly here on the show. She gets those show notes all set up for you. Every time we rattle off another book, she probably internally sighs a little bit because those lists get pretty long with some of our episodes. And she's very largely responsible for keeping those book lists up to shape online. Kara, thanks so much for coming back. Kara (03:26): Hello. It's great to be back. Sarah (03:28): Okay, so last year I taught a teacher training session for a wonderful school in Pittsburgh called The DePaul School for Hearing and Speech and in the training I was helping the teachers look for particular things in pictures books that they share with students. The principal of the school was really intent that picture books are not just for younger kids. She wanted her teachers to be using them ... the teachers of older classes to be using picture books regularly, as well. And one of the things we talked about during that training is that because picture books are short and you can read a whole story every day, you end up exposing your kids to a wider range of genres or points of view or cultural experiences and styles. (04:12): So basically, all the good stuff of story you can give your kids a greater quantity of them by using picture books. And so when you combine that benefit with the benefits of more sophisticated language patterns and higher level syntax and diction that are offered in picture books as opposed to chapter books or middle-grade novels, the benefits compound. They're really astounding. Kara (04:34): Yeah. We talked about this on the previous episode of the podcast; this idea that it's so doable to read a picture book a day. Sarah (04:42): Yeah. Kara (04:43): It's a 10-minute commitment as opposed to starting this epic novel or reading a book that takes a month to get through. In this episode, let's talk about looking closely at a picture book; how to really see it maybe in a way we haven't seen it before. But before we begin, I want to make sure that we emphasize that no formal lesson plans are necessary. Sarah (05:05): Yeah. Kara (05:06): If, as we're talking about these things, you think to yourself, "I'd never know to look for that," "Pretty sure I've never thought about this before," just remember the story is enough. Reading the story without these techniques or looking closely is still tremendously beneficial. The ideas that we're sharing today are pretty much icing on the cake. Sarah (05:24): Yes. Definitely icing on the cake. No lesson plans are required. I do hope that in sharing these techniques, on this episode in particular, we can all just breathe easy into this idea that reading picture books is not just for little kids because, as we're going to show, there's a ton on offer in a picture book for older kids, for teens, for adults. And it's all right there on the surface. We don't even have to dig that deep. We don't have to stretch to find them. But we often don't see them until the second or third re-read or if someone points at it and says, "Hey, look at this. Did you notice this?" Then we notice that they're literally right there. (06:00): I love to say that a picture book is like having poetry and an art gallery in your lap. Poetry and art galleries, Here we are, two of the most sophisticated art forms of art and poems. We can offer those in our kids right in their laps. And so, we're going to explore what that might look like in this episode. Kara (06:17): Yeah. And it just occurred to me that before we started recording, we were talking about a particular author and illustrator duo and about how much we loved those books and so when you talk about for adults ... that picture books have benefits for adults, too ... We talked the whole time about our feeling warm and cozy about those books. Sarah (06:41): Yeah. That's true. Kara (06:41): The Provensons that we talked about in the last episode. Sarah (06:41): Right. Kara (06:41): In case anybody's now wondering. Sarah (06:45): Yeah, we linked to a ton of those. Kara (06:47): Like, "Oh, wait. What books are these?" Sarah (06:47): Yeah. [crosstalk 00:06:47] We linked to a ton of the Provensons books, too, in episode 178. And by we linked I meant Kara linked. Kara (06:52): Well, and how many did we all just put on hold because we were batting them back and forth? Kortney (06:55): Right. As soon as we got started ... Kara (06:57): And realized how wonderful they were. Kortney (06:57): ... We just couldn't stop. Kara (06:59): Yeah. Sarah (06:59): It's true. It's true. Kara (07:00): And there's new ones coming. Okay. Basically, this episode, though, is going to be full of great ideas and techniques but you can start with what you know. You don't need to do any extra research. You don't need to get a specialized book list or a lesson plan or anything. You can just read aloud to your kids, no matter what their age, from a picture book a day. Sarah (07:22): Yeah. That's a really important point, I think. We don't need to complicate this. We. I'm going to use we because I'm pretty sure listeners who relate to this as well, but I know this is true for me, tend to over-complicate things. But it's not that important that our reading list dovetails with our studies, for example, like what we're studying in homeschool. We can sometimes put this undue pressure on ourselves to read books that correlate with whatever we're studying in history or whatever we're talking about in science or... And that's great when it happens, but there is still a tremendous amount of benefit that our kids can get even if we're reading a book completely outside of historical context. (08:03): So, if we're reading a picture book that is set in the middle ages and our kids have not learned anything about the middle ages, they're still going to get tons of benefits from reading those books. You don't want to wait until everything lines up just so. There's a lot to gain here and we just don't need to worry about everything lining up and dovetailing. And I know I've gotten a little distracted by that goal of making everything coordinate just so. Kara (08:27): Yeah. You're not the only one. I felt like my shoulders just went, "Ahh." One of things we've talked about before on the podcast and that we include with every Family Book Club guide at RAR Premium are open-ended questions. And our belief is that by asking questions that don't have a firm right or wrong answer, you actually get your child reading better than you would with a standard comprehension question. Sarah (08:54): Yep. Kara (08:56): Do we have an example of this? Kortney (08:58): Yeah. Let's use "Mornings with Monet" by Barb Rosenstock. It's illustrated by Mary GrandPré. It's a fantastic picture book biography, highly recommended. So if you were going to have a standard comprehension question, that might be something like "what kind of paint did Monet use?" And your child might have been listening very well, might have been 100% engaged with the story and be 100% unable to answer that question. Kara (09:26): It's true. Kortney (09:27): Questions like "when was Money born?" Or "where did Monet live?" These have right and wrong answers. They don't really invite your child to make connections, but when we ask open-ended questions, questions that don't have a stock answer. It really opens things up. It changes the way that kids experience reading. So let's think of some more open-ended questions. Sarah (09:50): Okay, so one that comes to mind for me is "What's a word you would use to describe Monet?" Because there's no right or wrong answer here. And one of the key things to remember as we're thinking about open-ended questions I think is that if we know the answer when we're asking the question, it's not open-ended. That means there's a right or wrong answer. Kara (10:09): Right. Sarah (10:09): But there's a lot of answers to the question "What's a word you would use to describe Monet?" We could say talented, dedicated, hard working, committed, rebellious. So let's say you ask your child "What's a word you would use to describe Monet?" after you've read "Mornings with Monet" and your child says rebellious. And you can follow that up just by saying "okay, so when was Monet rebellious in this story?" And your child actually has to think through the story to answer it, so if they can answer this question, you know they've been listening and paying attention and making connections. (10:45): So they might say something about his refusal to work in his family's ship supply business and his decision to paint in a totally new style of painting that was not well regarded at the time at all. All of that is a much higher level thinking than answering the question "which village did Monet live in?" or "What kind of paint did he use?" Kortney (11:07): Yeah, and that's exactly the work that we want our older students to be doing, to formulate ideas, their own ideas, their own opinions, and then to use the text to back it up. Sarah (11:17): Yeah. Kortney (11:17): But the thing that I love best about open-ended questions is that I can use the space that they create to model what reading well looks like. When we finish a book, I don't ask my kids anything. I just start sharing my own thoughts. I'll say something like, "Monet was so committed. Not many people would be willing to get up in the dark and go out to the river and paint day after day." Open-ended questions leave room for just that kind of model. (11:55): And if you do that, if you read a picture book a day and you model one observation you make, like that one, your kids will by osmosis pair reading with asking questions. Sarah (12:06): Yes, right. Kortney (12:08): It will just be what happens after they read a book. Sarah (12:09): Right. Kortney (12:10): And this can be especially helpful if you've got kids who are used to being quizzed, to look for right and wrong answers and they aren't letting themselves think openly and connect with what they're reading because they're so worried about getting it right. Sarah (12:24): Yeah. Kortney (12:24): Because then it's not a question. It's not like being quizzed. It's just inviting them into a conversation like we have all day long with our kids. This one is just about books or the story. Sarah (12:37): Yeah. Kortney (12:38): So we actually have a free guide on how to use open-ended questions like this with any book. Probably the easiest way to get it is to go to Read-Aloud Revival.com/166 and that's a whole episode that talks about asking open-ended questions. So if you're curious to learn more about this idea, that would be a wonderful place to start, episode 166. Sarah (13:00): I was one of those students growing up in school where I think I was constantly trying to answer the question in my head, "what does the teacher want me to say?" And I have one of my kids, well probably more than one, but specifically one jumps to mind right away who I know was trying to answer that question all while she was growing up. What is my mom looking for? And that's not really teaching us to think. I don't think I read well when I was trying to figure out what the teacher wanted me to say. So we're missing so much of what happens in the story so that's the power I think of an open-ended question. Is it disarms that so our kids aren't wondering anymore what does my mom or my teacher want me to say and they're actually thinking about the book, which is what we want. (13:36): And then like you said, Kort, they have to go back to the text to explain where they found it. And this is such a key, this is the key to all good literary essay writing when they're in high school and college. Kara (13:47): Right. Sarah (13:49): Share what you think about this or what your opinion is or make a case for whether the author did a good job trying to make their point, or whatever it is that you're trying to write in your essay. And then show us in the text your evidence for, back yourself up. It's textual evidence. And we're really teaching it with picture books from the times our kids are four or five, just by saying "use a word to describe Monet and then where do you notice that?" It's just a habit of mind that's just really great to cultivate. (14:22): Aside from open-ended questions, there is another set of techniques that you can use when reading aloud a picture book that really helps your kids look closely. And you might be surprised by how much is there. We do this all the time, Kara I've mentioned in RAR Premium with our family book club picks and we thought we would demonstrate it using that same book, "Mornings with Monet" written by Barb Rosenstock, illustrated by Mary GrandPré and we thought we could just talk about a few things we see here. So who wants to go first? Kortney (14:49): Okay, I'm going to go first. When you first open the book, the first thing you see are end papers. I like to think of end papers as setting the stage for what's coming. Like when you're at the theater and the show's about to start and the orchestra's tuning up and the house lights go down, everyone gets quiet. Sarah (15:05): Oh, I love that. Kortney (15:05): The end papers are that hush just before the action begins. So the end papers for "Morning with Monet" include a quote by Claude Monet. So let me read it to you. Listen. "I can't begin to describe a day as wonderful as this. One marvel after another, each lasting less than five minutes." Claude Monet. A quote like that's called an epigraph. Sometimes it can hint at the book's theme. So the epigraph itself can be a question that the book answers. Kara (15:41): Yeah, and there's a quote on the final end paper too that says "When I work, I forget all the rest." Claude Monet. And it would be really interesting to ask your kids how that quote strikes them or what they think it might be referring to after they've read the story. Or even why they chose to put that quote at the end and the other quote at the beginning. And you will read that quote differently once you've read through the whole story. Maybe even if you read it more than once [crosstalk 00:16:17]. Sarah (16:18): Yeah. And then here you're just pointing at... What I'm hearing you do is just point at, you read the book and you're pointing at the epigraph like, "oh I wonder why the author chose those particular quotes." Well, what that does then is when your kids are reading anything else, other picture books or a novel 20 years from now, they will be like there's an epigraph. And that idea of I wonder why the author chose this particular quote, what are they trying to hint at to come? This is how we teach our kids to be really engaged readers. So interesting and it's so simple just by pointing at something we see in a picture book. (16:53): Another thing in "Morning with Monet" that is worth taking an extra look at is just text layout. So text layout can direct readers to look at a book and read a book I should say in a certain way. So we actually chose, talked to Mary GrandPré, the illustrator of this book, "Morning with Monet", and she told us that she chose the text layout for a particular spread in the book that I love. So I'm just going to read this spread to you. You can't see it because this an audio podcast but what I want you to know is that with these words, the words "over", "dip", "pull" are bigger and they stand out from the rest of the text. And the text on these pages actually is curved or swirly, it looks like it's part of the water. So it's not straight in a line like normal text. (17:43): So already when you get to this page, you just see that text. And even if you don't know exactly what the author, illustrator, or book designer were trying to do there, it's calling your attention, subconsciously, to these words are different from the others. And I'll just read this spread to you and then we'll talk about it. (18:01): "Monet heads into the current of this river, the Seine. Over, dip, pull. The same river that divides Paris where he was born. Over, dip, pull. The same river that flows to the North Coast near Le Havre where he grew up. Over, dip, pull. The same river always. Pushing back the way he pushed again school, the family business, a stable life indoors. Bold, ever changing. This river he will try to capture." Kortney (18:36): I just got goosebumps. Sarah (18:39): So if we're looking at the illustration, we can see "over, dip, pull" are separate. And just the whole page, we're seeing the river and the impact this river has made on Monet's life. Because it's the same river that divided Paris where he was born, the same river that flowed to the North Coast, but even listen to the words the author chose here on these pages are "over, dip, pull. The same river." Over, dip, pull. The same river. Over, dip, pull. The same river. Always pushing back. And the way, the cadence of that language feels like the lapping of a boat. It makes you feel like you're in the boat on the river with Monet. And that is just such an extremely powerful way to notice something that you go, "wait a second." All you have to, if you're thinking right now "I probably wouldn't have noticed that "over, dip, pull. The same river" if you repeat it several times feels like the lapping of water." (19:33): But you would notice that this page should be read a little differently because the text invites you to. Because it's swirling on the page. Because it's different than all the rest the text in the book. And so this is one of those things you can just point at and go "I wonder why the author, or illustrator, or book designer made these words different." And just asking that question for a second will have you experience that spread a little differently. Kortney (19:57): When we talked to Mary GrandPré, we talked about another spread where there's a picture of Monet getting out of bed and his cat waking up and stretching. And we had noticed that it looked very similar to another cat that Monet himself had painted. And so when we were talking to Mary, we put pictures of these two cats side by side and Mary GrandPré was floored. She had no idea that the cat that she had painted looked so similar to one that Monet. Sarah (20:24): Yes. One of the things I just love about our family book clubs because we get to meet the author or illustrator. Kortney (20:29): Right. Sarah (20:30): Sometimes both. And see some insight into the magic behind the book. It's so interesting because I didn't notice that. I would have just breezed by that cat reading the book until one of you pointed out, "wow this cat in this book looks a lot like this other cat Monet painted." I'm sure, I probably could imagine who figured that out first. Kara (20:47): Of course I noticed the cat. Isn't that what the book is about? Kortney (20:50): Of course Kara noticed the cat. Kara (20:50): I can't not notice cats. Aren't they just that's why they're there, right? It's because they want your attention but not really your attention. Sarah (20:59): I would've just breezed by it. And then when you point it out, "wow look at this and then look at this Monet painting," I was like "wow Mary GrandPré totally did that on purpose." And then we bring it to her attention and she's like "Wow. I did not." Kara (21:13): That was so crazy. Because I just figured, I looked at the cat and I thought "did Monet have a cat?" And then I googled "Monet cat" or something and it popped up and I was like "look at that! Monet had a cat! And she knew it and she put it in the book and that's so amazing!" And then she was like "wait, what?" Sarah (21:31): Yeah, it's like the cat just walked into the book like I need to be here. Kara (21:35): Yeah. Kortney (21:35): Yeah. Kara (21:37): Which is what cats do. So there you go. Sarah (21:46): That's also a good point because I just said, I would've skipped over that. I would've missed the cat. But I know that's fine, so I don't want listeners to feel ill-equipped here because you can just read the book. And if you do nothing else but read the book, that's a win. But if you model answering an open-ended question or just wondering about something that you see in the book or take a minute to go "I wonder why the author or illustrator or book designer, whoever, made the text different." Or like you just said, Kara, "I wonder if, did Monet have a cat? I wonder." That's like the best frosting you've tasted on a cake, but it's just frosting on a cake. So you can just read the book and you'll get so much benefit from just reading the book. (22:25): These are things that you really can use to enrich the picture book experience and I think can help make reading picture books really satisfying with older kids too. So awesome if you notice them, totally okay if you don't. And I mentioned, or I think Kara you mentioned actually, that we do this every single month with our family book club picks at RAR premium. I just make a quick five minute video where I invite you to see three or four of things that we've seen and just point at that, like "look at this text. What do you see there? Look at this cat. What do you think here?" (22:56): And if you're listening to this and you think "whoa I want to read books that way," then you can join us in RAR premium because we do that on the regular with our family book club picks. We make these looking closely videos, and we help you just look for things that you can point out with your kids and ask "I wonder why they decided to do that." And that really enriches the picture book reading experience. Kara (23:17): Yeah, and it's great to do that in a community because like you said, we're all going to notice different things. I'm going to notice every cat, but I'm going to miss other things entirely. So. Sarah (23:25): Yeah. Kara (23:25): Yeah, it's nice to have a chance to read together like that because everybody brings their own questions and observations. Sarah (23:34): That's right. Kara (23:35): I think as we're talking about this, our wordless picture book episode goes along really well with this conversation because when you're reading a wordless picture book, you're naturally looking closely because there aren't as many words. And it's a good way to really invite our kids into books and to share our conversation. Wordless books force us to look closer and to take our time and to naturally discuss the book. Sarah (24:05): Yeah. Kara (24:05): And so you can find that episode at Read-Aloud Revival.com/1. Well hold on. You can find that one, it's episode 170. And of course, there's a book list that goes with it. Kortney (24:21): Okay. At the risk of going on all day, because we really could talk about picture books all day around here. Sarah (24:27): We really could. Kortney (24:28): Let's just recommend one picture book that we've been reading of late. I'm going to go first. I'm going to talk about "Snowman Minus Cold Equals Puddle: Spring Equations" by Laura Purdie Salas. I just read this book with our middle school co-op and we're all finishing up a year of pre-algebra and I wanted them to have another look at what an equation can be. Sarah (24:51): Oh cool. Kortney (24:53): I think we're all familiar with books you can't put down. Books that suck you in. But Austin Kleon talks about books that spin you out. Books that make you want to keep on reading and learning. I have a feeling that "Snowman Minus Cold Equals Puddle" is going to be that kind of picture book for your family. The kind that sparks more reading, more learning. After this read-aloud, people at your house are going to be seeing equations everywhere. Sarah (25:19): Books that spin you out. I love that. I've experienced this myself where I know I've talked about this on the show before, but I went on a Romanov kick a year ago. Because I read a novel and I knew nothing about the Romanovs and it was rabbit trail and rabbit trail, I just had to keep reading. And I can totally see that happening with this book too. (25:38): Kortney, when you first told me about this book, you I think mentioned that you had just, you hadn't even read the book yet, or maybe you hadn't read it with your kids yet, you just read the title ""Snowman Minus Cold Equals Puddle" and that set off some happy equation making I think. Kortney (25:51): Yeah we were walking on the way to the library to pick up our holds and I told them this book is there, it's called "Snowman Minus Cold Equals Puddle" and they immediately started making up their own equations, their own stories that are true. Sarah (26:07): I love it. [crosstalk 00:26:08] plus some baked potato equals happiness or I don't know. Kara (26:07): I feel like you said. Kortney (26:10): True loves. Sarah (26:10): True love. Kara (26:10): I actually. Sarah (26:18): [crosstalk 00:26:18] Go ahead Kara. Kara (26:18): I feel like you said. Oh sorry. Kortney (26:20): We actually, with our co-op we did a workshop that Laura Purdie Salas offers and she in real time brains storms some ideas about writing equation poems and how things fit together and how things fit together in unexpected ways. And then punching up that language so it's a really fun time to read and write together. Sarah (26:42): Oh cool. Okay so I wanted to talk about a book I'm sure some of you listeners have heard me mention on the show before, but I have to bring it up again because it's just such a treat for kids of all different ages. It's a really good example of a picture book you could use no matter what age kids you are. And we're about to go really deep on it in our premium because it's our August family book club pick. It is called "Your Place in the Universe" and it's written and illustrated by Jason Chin. I think I had mentioned it on the show before because I was reading it with my younger kids and my 15 year old son, who had his headphones on by the way, was looking over his shoulder. Takes his headphones off and listens to me finish reading this book. (27:23): And then at the end he was like "That book is awesome." And I thought, when is the last time your 15 year old son said that picture book is amazing. So it really is, it talks about, it basically gives you a different picture for scale. Your place in the universe, what does that really mean? Your little place right here in your home, in your town, in your city, in your state, in your country, in your continent, in your world, and then all the way out to the universe. But it's really, the illustrations, the way it's presented is so fascinating. Different than I've ever seen done before. (27:57): So we're going to be doing this whole thing where we're looking closely at it and pointing at things and going "I wonder why the author, illustrator did that? I wonder why they chose to do this?" We're going to be doing all that in RAR premium so if you'd like to join us, make sure you're in for our August family book club because it's going to be really fun. And Jason, by the way, he's come to Read-Aloud Revival before to talk about his book he illustrated "Nine Months," which is a beautiful book [crosstalk 00:28:22]. Kortney (28:21): It is. Sarah (28:22): Yes. About a baby's growth. And when he's here, he paints while he answers questions. So we'll be asking him the questions that your kids have submitted and then he'll be painting while he answers them and it is mesmerizing. Kara (28:36): Yeah, and my brain is firing now I'm realizing, both of those books are math and we should add them to the math picture books list that we have. Kortney (28:44): Yeah. Sarah (28:44): Oh we should. Yes. Kara (28:46): We actually have a whole list of math picture books. It's episode 147. Kortney (28:51): We do. It's a pretty long list too actually. Sarah (28:54): Yeah it is. Lots of great books on there that make math way more approachable than... well I don't know, for me math is hard. It's hard to approach. Kortney (29:07): Way more approachable than math is, we can say that. [crosstalk 00:29:10] the perfect way to say it. Exactly yeah. For the math-phobic or the math nervous. Sarah (29:17): Exactly. Kortney (29:17): I think it just gives us a richer understanding of what math is. It's not just computation, it's not just questions on a page, that there's a whole way of thinking about the world and that's what these books can really bring in for our kids. Kara (29:31): Yeah, that's right. Sarah (29:32): Oh, that's so good. Yeah. Kara (29:34): So we've been talking about reading closely and we mentioned wordless books so I was thinking about our favorite wordless books and I found out that our favorite ones from when the kids were little, they were board books when the kids were small. But there's actually a whole treasury about Carl the Dog. Sarah (29:55): Aw. Kortney (29:55): Aw. Kara (29:56): And it includes six of the Carl classics and...oh we read these until they just fell apart, we loved them so much. And I think that these books are wonderful because they slow you down and sometimes our kids need that and sometimes we need that. Kortney (30:15): Right. Sarah (30:16): Yeah. Kara (30:17): Because it forces you to just slow down, all of a sudden you're literally on the same page with each other and you're just talking about what you see and what's happening in the books. So the treasury is called "You're a Good Dog, Carl" by Alexandra Day. It's got six of the Carl classics. You just can't help keep yourself from talking about this book with your kids. And it's great practice if you are helping your kids switch from that feeling of being quizzed to just discussing a book. Sarah (30:49): I learned to love treasuries like that, especially for when we travel because then you can just bring a book. Or a treasury or two and you have lots of stories with you. But I don't have that treasury so I'm going to have to add it to my collection because we love Carl the dog. And I love dog books in the way I didn't used to now that we have our own little Tomie dePaola. Kara (31:07): So cute. Sarah (31:08): Oh my goodness, I'll put a picture of him in the show notes just for fun. Twist my arm. Kortney (31:18): Oh sure, yeah. Sarah (31:19): Well, we have tons of goodies for you in the show notes today. Read-Aloud Revival.com/179. We've got the picture book a day printables so you can do that seven day challenge or 30 day challenge of reading a picture book a day with your kids and keeping track of the books you read. We've got book list recommendations of course. And then we'll also have that fantastic guide for using open-ended questions with your kids in the show notes as well. And you can use that guide with any aged child and any book. It's really helpful no matter what you're reading and who you're reading it to. So head to the show notes for all of it. But now let's go listen to hear what the kids have been loving lately. Speaker 5 (32:04): Hi, my name is Ashton McMann. I live in Decone, Alaska and I'm eight years old. My favorite book right now is "Secret of the Ninja: Choose Your Own Adventure" by Jay Leibold. Speaker 6 (32:14): Hi, my name is [inaudible 00:32:16] McMann and I live in Decone, Alaska and I'm five years old and my favorite book right now is "There's Giraffe in my Soup" by Ross Burach. Speaker 7 (32:35): I'm Willa, I live in Missouri and my favorite book is "The Gruffalo" because at the end, the mouse says "my favorite food is Gruffalo crumble" and the gruffalo is scared of the mouse, even though he's smaller. Speaker 8 (32:52): My name is Caroline and I'm 10 years old and I'm from Missouri and my favorite book is "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" because the illustrations make it scarier and we read it in the dark when we were camping. Speaker 9 (33:07): Hi, my name is Jasper and I'm almost going to be five in December 1st. I like "The Biggest Bear" because I like the cover of it, even why I liked it, "The Biggest Bear" because I like the illustrations. Bye! Speaker 10 (33:28): Hi, my name is Lucy. I am four years old. I live in Utah. My favorite book is "Winnie the Pooh." I like it because it's funny when Piglet thinks Pooh is a heffalump with his honey jar stuck on his head. Speaker 11 (33:45): Hi, my name is Colter Thomich, I live in Tacoma, Washington. I am eight years old. My favorite book is "I Survived the Eruption of Mount Saint Helens: 1980." I like it because it's a book on this girl who survived the eruption. Speaker 12 (34:04): Hello, my name is Cameron Thomich, I am 11 years old. I live in Tacoma, Washington. My favorite book is "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" because it gives you information about the Salem Witch Trials. Speaker 13 (34:16): My name is Lucille and I am seven years old and I live in California. And my favorite books I've been reading are "The Mercy Watson Series" because the first book, they think Mercy Watson saves the day, although Eugenia Lincoln calls because Baby Lincoln thinks that there is a monster at her window. And I like Chris Van Dusen's illustrating. Speaker 14 (34:39): Hello, my name is Annaliese. I'm 12 years old and I live in Ontario, Canada. My favorite books of all time are "The Mysterious Benedict Society" books. I love these books because the characters are so believable and funny. They have real life problems but manage to get through them in an honest way. I've always wished I could meet them. Speaker 15 (35:00): What's your name? Speaker 16 (35:02): Carter. Speaker 15 (35:02): And how old are you? Speaker 16 (35:03): Two. Speaker 15 (35:04): And where do you live? Speaker 16 (35:12): [inaudible 00:35:12]. Speaker 15 (35:12): New York. And what's your favorite book? Speaker 16 (35:15): Tow Truck [inaudible 00:35:17] Speaker 15 (35:17): And why is it your favorite book? Speaker 16 (35:18): [inaudible 00:35:18] I like all the different kinds of trucks! Speaker 17 (35:28): Hi, my name's Cordelia, I'm six years old in Massachusetts. My favorite book is "Back to School with Becky" by Carolyn Heightwood. My favorite part is when Miss Green gets married. Speaker 18 (35:40): Hi, my name is Jerome and I live in Massachusetts. I'm four years old and my favorite book is "Pippi Longstocking" and my favorite part is when Pippi Longstocking buys a lot of candy and lots of kids grab it. Bye-bye. Speaker 19 (36:00): Hi, my name is Cooper Goritano. I am nine, I live in Sauna, Texas. My favorite book read aloud to me is "Stellaluna" by Janell Cannon. My favorite part is when Stellaluna saves Flap, Flitter, and Pip. Sarah (36:16): Thank you, thank you kids, I always love to hear what your favorite books are lately. A picture book is like poetry and an art gallery in your child's lap and there's something there for everyone in a picture book, no matter how old you are. If you know to take a moment and just look at it and wonder about what you're seeing. Next time on the podcast, Kortney and Kara are going to join me again to talk all about reading picture books specifically with older kids. Know what to read, how to entice your teens and convince them to listen to a picture book if they're not super excited about it and why on earth you would take the time to do it. So that's all coming up on the next episode in two weeks. But in the meantime, go grab our printables at Read-Aloud Revival.com/179 and read a picture book a day. Take the challenge we dare you, and go make meaningful and lasting connections with your kids through books. (37:23): So many of us feel overwhelmed in our homeschool. There's a lot to do and it feels like every child needs something a little different. The good news is, you are the best person on the planet to help your kids learn and grow and home is the best place to fall in love with books. I'm Sarah Mackenzie. I'm a homeschooling mother of six, the author of The Read-Aloud Family and I'm the host here on the Read-Aloud Revival podcast. This podcast has been downloaded over eight million times and I think it's because so many of us want the same things. We want our kids to be readers, to love reading, we want our homes to be warm and happy havens of learning and connection. We know that raising our kids is the most important work of our lives. (38:27): That's overwhelming, right? You are not alone. In Read-Aloud Revival premium, we offer family book clubs, a vibrant community, and Circle with Sarah, coaching for you the homeschooling mom, so you can teach from rest, homeschool with confidence and raise kids who love to read. Our family book clubs are a game changer for your kids relationship with books. We provide you with a family book club guide and an opportunity for your kids to meet the author or illustrator live on screen. So all you have to do is get the book, read it with your kids, and make those meaningful and lasting connections. (39:13): They work for all ages, from your youngest kids to your teens. Every month our community also gathers online for a Circle with Sarah to get ideas and encouragement around creating the homeschooling life you crave. They're the most effective way I know to teach from rest and build a homeschool life you love. (39:43): We want to help your kids fall in love with books and we want to help you fall in love with homeschooling. Join us today at RAR premium.com.